Pass rate
67.6%
Below average — 5.0 pts behind the 72.6% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 1,118 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £45–£128
2003 Mitsubishi Carisma MOT pass rate
- 2003
- typical 102,115 mi
Most common fault
Brakes
24.3% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Part only £25–£55 for Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded. What fitting it takes →
Which year to buy
- Best 2000 73.9% pass
- Avoid 2003 67.6% pass · this year
Across the 5 years on record, a spread of 6.3 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 56.8%
- Typical mileage
- 102k mi
The 2003 Mitsubishi Carisma MOT pass rate is 67.6% of its MOT tests — 5.0 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 24.3% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Mitsubishi Carisma does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Fewer problems with tyres
Tyres are 10.1% of this car’s recorded faults, against 19.8% nationally — the mirror image of the usual story on a car of this age.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, cars this age and mileage expect about 72.6%; this one manages 67.6% — 5.0 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 15% of this model’s typical repairs come in under £30 in parts — the failures here tend to be the kind that need a garage rather than a bulb.
Written from this page's own figures: fault shares against the national composition, the like-for-like pass rate, and the priced repair list. How these are worked out
Watching a Mitsubishi Carisma? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2003 Mitsubishi Carisma compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.6%, so this figure is 5.0 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 56.8%. The median 2003 Mitsubishi Carisma in this dataset had covered 102,115 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Diesel — 51% of tests, with a 66.1% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 67.8% of the time, April–September 67.4%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated", noted on 9.21% of tests.
- 1,118 recorded tests behind this page.
- 67.6% overall pass rate, 56.8% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Mitsubishi Carisma, the average is 68.7% — best year 2000 (73.9%), worst 2003 (67.6%).
Figures count every completed test on this vehicle-year in the dataset, including retests. See methodology for the exact definition.
This page's data
- Tests analysed
- 1,118
- Typical mileage (median)
- 102,115 mi
- Make and model
- Mitsubishi Carisma
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Ball Joint
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Carisma MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 56% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (51% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Carisma
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 238 | 70.2% |
| South West | 201 | 63.2% |
| North West | 131 | 68.7% |
| East of England | 115 | 68.7% |
| West Midlands | 113 | 71.7% |
| Yorkshire | 96 | 61.5% |
| East Midlands | 88 | 73.9% |
| Wales | 57 | 57.9% |
| North East | 27 | 66.7% |
| Scotland | 26 | 65.4% |
| London | 26 | 76.9% |
Regions come from the postcode area recorded at the test station. Areas on region borders are assigned to the region with the majority of their population.
What fails a 2003 Carisma
Everything a tester recorded on this vehicle, grouped into the inspection sections that produced it. The notch on each bar is the national share, so you can see at a glance whether this car is unusual or just ordinary.
A test can record several items, so these percentages do not add up to 100%. The exact strings, with prices, are in the full DVSA record at the bottom of this page.
Before your test
Three checks worth doing on a 2003 Carisma
These are not generic tips — they are the faults recorded most often on this exact model, rewritten as things you can check yourself. All three take about ten minutes and cost nothing.
-
Check the suspension joints 9.2% of tests
“ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated”
With the car parked on level ground, rock the top of each front wheel in and out while someone watches the suspension arm. Clunks, or rubber boots split and greasy, are what testers record here.
-
Check the lights 9.0% of tests
“headlamp lens slightly defective”
Switch everything on and walk round the car: both headlamps on dip and main, every indicator, both brake lights, reverse, fog and the two number-plate lamps. A bulb is a few pounds and a five-minute job.
-
Check the windscreen 6.8% of tests
“windscreen damaged”
Check the driver’s side of the screen within the swept area for chips and cracks; anything larger than 10mm in the driver’s central view is a fail. Most chips can be resin-repaired for far less than a new screen.
Shares are the proportion of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item, so they overlap: one test can record several.
What it costs to get a 2003 Carisma through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £45–£128 — and 15% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £45–£128
- Cheapest common item: headlamp lens slightly defective
- £5–£25
- Dearest common item: joints constant velocity boot severely…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 50%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 15%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 1,118 MOT tests on this vehicle. They exclude diagnostics, retest fees and garage labour where the part is a DIY fit, and they are not figures from the DVSA dataset. Older and higher-mileage examples cost more than the average. How these estimates are built → · All MOT repair costs → · Cheapest cars to put through a test →
Every year of the Carisma, side by side
5 model years on record, from 2000 to 2004. Across them the pass rate runs from 67.6% to 73.9% — a spread of 6.3 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 73.9% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2001 68.8% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2002 69.6% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2003 67.6%ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2004 68.9% ball joint dust cover severely…
Colour is the pass rate on a fixed scale, so a block means the same thing on any model. Each year links to its own page with the full fault breakdown.
Compare the 2003 Mitsubishi Carisma with another year
The raw pass rate mostly measures age. The year comparison adds the like-for-like figure, the mileage bands and the repair bill.
Other 2003 cars with a similar record
- Volvo V40 67.3%
- Ford Ka 68.0%
- Ford Galaxy 68.0%
- Volkswagen Beetle 67.1%
- Citroen C3 68.2%
- Volkswagen Polo 68.3%
Closest pass rates among 2003 cars with at least 2,000 tests, so a small sample cannot flatter itself into the list. See the full rankings: best and worst MOT pass rates.
The full DVSA record for the 2003 Mitsubishi Carisma 10 failure items · 6 advisories · 10 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 4,396 individual items recorded on this vehicle, and the same share across all cars nationally. A single test can record several items, so a row is not a percentage of tests.
| Category | Items | This car | Nationally | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brakes | 1,080 | 24.30% | 20.89% | +3.41 |
| Suspension | 985 | 22.20% | 20.98% | +1.22 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 578 | 13.00% | 12.21% | +0.79 |
| Tyres | 450 | 10.10% | 19.76% | −9.66 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 360 | 8.10% | 5.52% | +2.58 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 329 | 7.40% | 5.57% | +1.83 |
| Steering | 211 | 4.70% | 2.57% | +2.13 |
| Visibility | 194 | 4.40% | 4.97% | −0.57 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 133 | 3.00% | 1.76% | +1.24 |
| Non-component advisories | 76 | 1.70% | 4.18% | −2.48 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 9.2% | £18–45 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 9.0% | £5–25 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 9.0% | £80–250 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 6.8% | £80–200 |
| Rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements Brakes | Major | 5.0% | £45–110 |
| Linkage pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 4.6% | £40–150 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 4.5% | £80–250 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 4.4% | £18–45 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Major | 4.1% | £80–180 |
| Track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt Steering | Minor | 3.9% | £18–45 |
Severity is as recorded: Major and Dangerous fail the test outright; Minor and Advisory do not. Costs are estimates from typical UK parts prices — see how they are built.
What testers noted without failing the car
Advisories are the early warnings — the same parts a year or two before they fail. Reading them is how you tell a car that has been maintained from one that has been patched.
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 25.9% | £200–700 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 24.1% | £80–180 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 19.7% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 18.0% | £45–110 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 14.2% | £45–95 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 12.8% | £40–150 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 11 | 90.9% | 24,593 mi |
| 30-60k | 125 | 80.0% | 46,768 mi |
| 60-90k | 285 | 69.1% | 76,295 mi |
| 90-120k | 304 | 64.1% | 104,555 mi |
| 120k+ | 392 | 64.8% | 155,019 mi |
Source: 1,118 recorded tests on this vehicle-year. Every row above is recomputed from the same DVSA extract as the rest of the page — see the methodology.
2003 Carisma MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2003 Mitsubishi Carisma?
67.6% of the 1,118 2003 Mitsubishi Carisma tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.6% for cars first used in 2003. First-attempt pass rate: 56.8%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2003 Mitsubishi Carisma?
The three most recorded items are ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated (9.21%), headlamp lens slightly defective (9.03%), joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated (9.03%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2003 Mitsubishi Carisma MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 90.9% of the time, falling to 64.8% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2003 Mitsubishi Carisma in this dataset had covered 102,115 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2003 Mitsubishi Carisma?
Diesel: 66.1% pass rate across 566 tests. Petrol: 69.2% pass rate across 552 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2003 Mitsubishi Carisma MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 67.8% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 67.4%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.